The portal vanished.

I felt numb. Tophua was gone and we had no idea where he’d been sent.

Aryne didn’t seem the least bit concerned that the portal was closed and didn’t even turn around as he kept pushing the now three Adventurers who were trying to find a hole in his defenses.

The Cultists were backing away from the fight, but none of them were joining in the fight.

It felt empty. Like Tophua had just vanished and no one noticed or cared. I wanted to scream, but I knew that wouldn’t help anything. Tophua had risked his life, I refused to think of him as dead, to give us a chance. I wasn’t going to waste it.

I turned around and started keying in the gate, but it flared to life before I could finish.

“We’ve got… Something?” I wasn’t sure if this was a problem or the solution.

“Now what?” Gesai turned around and I saw a tear in her eye. She wiped it away with the back of her free hand.

“Someone’s coming through.” I pointed at the gate.

Trent marched through the gate with the rest of his team behind him.

“Trent!” I wanted to hug him. “Aryne…”

“I know.” Trent’s voice was cold and this was the first time he’d ever seemed angry to me. “Gesai, keep them back.” He looked at Rix, “We might need her.”

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A flash of white crashed through the sky and hit Aryne. The bolt actually budged him and left a little smoke. There was a blast of purple and the three were knocked back as Aryne turned and sneered at Trent.

TAKE THEM!!!

The Cultists got up and started to attack the prone Adventurers. Aryne shot forward, and had to stop as a ring of arm length icicles started sprouting from a wall of ice that formed around him.

Celia screamed and I felt bloodlust roll off of her like I’d felt off of Edward, but this felt so much worse. My stomach twisted as the brown-haired woman leapt into the air and swung a sword over her head as she landed inside the ice ring..

Arlo was busy creating shields around the various prone Adventurers while Sandez was doing some sort of mass healing spell.

Zorna had vanished, but someone was shooting arrows into the Ice ring that Aryne was tearing apart with an ax. The former cook was actually defending himself from the attacks from Celia and Zorna.

Fyth was busy tending to a pocket dungeon where she was storing Cultists that the other team and freed Adventurers were defeating.

Trent began unleashing spell after spell that landed right as Celia backed away to ready for another strike. It was like they’d practiced the tempo a thousand times.

Zorna was doing her part staying hidden and adding more holes to Aryne. Instead of bleeding blood though, he was bleeding that purple gunk. The aura around him didn’t seem to fade, but his power was. It was almost like he wasn’t able to control the power of the aura without having it saturated in the purple ooze.

The moment that Aryne dropped to one knee, I knew it was over. Apparently so did he because he tried to unleash a wave of power, but the pulse died as he was frozen in a cube of ice.

Trent was breathing hard. I’d seen him like this once before, after fighting Sipher and Whisper. I looked around the battlefield, but the blonde Bandit wasn’t here anymore. I wondered when I’d see him again and hoped that he’d be on our side whenever that time was as well.